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Mrs. Gorf
Mrs. Gorf was the previous teacher on the thirtieth story before Mrs. Jewls. She is a recurring character in the Wayside School books and a one-off character in the cartoon, where she was a substitute instead. Appearance Books In "Mrs. Gorf," she is stated to have a long tongue and pointed ears, while her ghost in "Stephen" is implied to have long fingernails. Aside from this, her appearance is never described. She appears as a ghost in "Stephen" and as a plate of potato salad in "Another Story About Potatoes." Cartoon In the cartoon, Mrs. Gorf is an old woman with very pale skin, a long nose, pointed ears, and sharp fangs. Her long tongue resembles that of a snake, and she has dark gray hair tied in a bun. She wears a long purple dress with a white lace collar, purple and lavender striped socks, and black boots with pointed toes and heels. She has sharp fingers, possibly implying sharp fingernails, though the art style of the show leaves it ambiguous. Personality Books In the Wayside School books, Mrs. Gorf is immediately introduced as the "meanest teacher at Wayside School." She dislikes children, and regularly takes time to punish the kids in her class by transforming them into apples, something she does like, as is stated in "Mrs. Gorf." While the reason she dislikes students is unknown, it leads to her playing a recurring antagonistic role in the Wayside School series, tormenting the students with her mean and wicked personality. She is quick to punish students, even transforming them into apples for minor offenses such as sneezing in class or falling out of a chair. It is possible that Mrs. Gorf is also somewhat lazy, as in "Mrs. Gorf," she feels relieved when all the students are transformed into apples, as she thinks she'll never have to walk up thirty flights of stairs ever again. However, when attacked by the students in her class, transformed into apples, she begins to threaten them, but gives up fairly quickly, eventually agreeing to turn them back into children. That being said, she does not hesitate to change them back to apples, as she almost does so to Maurecia when she plans on getting Louis, only getting transformed herself due to a mirror held up by Jenny. After her death, Mrs. Gorf still tries to regularly torment Mrs. Jewls's class, returning as a ghost in "Stephen," and returning as potato salad in "Another Story About Potatoes." In these forms, Mrs. Gorf retains all of her usual powers, but she gains a new weakness depending on the form she takes, so when Stephen hugs her as a ghost, or when Joe and John eat her as a potato salad, she quickly disappears. As she states in "Stephen," she wants to get even with all the students of Mrs. Jewls's class, and every subsequent appearance of Mrs. Gorf after her debut is generally focused around her hoping to finally get revenge on the students of her class. Cartoon In the cartoon, Mrs. Gorf's personality is elaborated on even less, as she only appears in the episode "Mrs. Gorf." Much like in the books, she is a mean and wicked teacher who hates children, though she appears to be even more upfront about it, maniacally laughing when Louis suggests that the children might love her, and defying the rules of Wayside School as presented by Dana. Much like in the books, she transforms students into apples at minor offenses, but a number of students are seen being transformed with no offense whatsoever. However, this may just be to save time that desperately needed to be dedicated to filler with the geography teacher. That being said, she does nearly change Maurecia back into an apple with no offense whatsoever at the end of the episode.In the show, she is seen to be impressed by Myron standing up for his classmates, and awards him by not transforming him into an apple, but a potato. Like in the books, she is quick to give up when the apples attack her, and quickly transforms them back into students. In contrast to the books, however, she is able to transform students into more than just apples, transforming Myron into a potato, a cow into a pumpkin, and Fluffy into a pineapple. Relationships Books Mr. Gorf Mr. Gorf is Mrs. Gorf's son. While it is never known how Mrs. Gorf felt about him, Mr. Gorf appears to love her very much, taking vengeance on Mrs. Jewls's class for having her being transformed into an apple, leading to Louis eating her. Stephen hugs Mrs. Gorf, dispatching her ghost. ("Stephen," 2003)]]In "Mrs. Gorf," Stephen is scared of Mrs. Gorf, after seeing her transform three students into apples. However, in "Stephen," when Mrs. Gorf's ghost returns, Stephen is glad to see her, as she uses the same logic he does to appear during a Halloween party. The chapter ends with Stephen hugging Mrs. Gorf, causing her to disappear. It is likely Mrs. Gorf doesn't like Stephen, as in "Mrs. Gorf," it is remarked she didn't like children, and she punishes him for crying. Todd Mrs. Gorf seems to hold a vendetta against Todd, likely because he was the first student to get upset at her for transforming other students into apples in "Mrs. Gorf." By the time she returns in "Stephen," she asks where Todd is first, implying she desires to transform him into an apple first. Cartoon Maurecia In the episode "Mrs. Gorf," Maurecia appears to be Mrs. Gorf's biggest enemy, as she is able to escape rescuing all the students transformed into apples. Mrs. Gorf proceeds to chase after Maurecia, transforming anything that gets in her way into an apple. While Maurecia initially thinks Mrs. Gorf might be nice, stating that being turned into an apple is just part of growing up, after Fluffy is transformed into a pineapple, she snaps, gaining a much more tough personality, and demanding Mrs. Gorf turn the apples back into students. After everyone is saved, Mrs. Gorf attempts getting revenge on Maurecia by turning her into an apple, but Maurecia holds out a mirror to protect herself. Myron In the episode "Mrs. Gorf," Mrs. Gorf shows some admiration towards Myron standing up for his classmates, and decides not to turn him into an apple, transforming him into a potato instead. Appearances For a list of every chapter and episode Mrs. Gorf is seen in, see here. Trivia *Mrs. Gorf being a substitute in the cartoon is likely because Mrs. Jewls was shown running the class for a long time in "Age of Aquarium" beforehand. *Whenever transforming someone into an apple, Mrs. Gorf wiggles her right ear first, then her left, then she sticks out her tongue. She can transform the apples back into people by doing this in reverse. Gallery See a gallery for Mrs. Gorf here. Category:Adults Category:Teachers Category:Characters Category:Introduced in Sideways Stories from Wayside School Category:Females Category:Deceased characters